[file photo] Displaced Amhara families from Wollega at the Jari camp in Tehuledere, South Wollo, in a 2025 photo released by Doctors Without Borders. Photo: Metasebia Teshome/MSF
An alliance of armed and political groups fighting Ethiopia's government has accused state structures of taking part in killings and forced displacement of civilians in Wollega, Arsi, Moyale and Gambella, DW Amharic reported.
The coalition said state structures were involved both "directly and indirectly," according to the broadcaster.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the coalition, known as the Ethiopian People's Forces Alliance for Survival, or the Alliance for Survival for short, said that crimes committed "repeatedly" since August had destroyed small towns in East Wollega and that "more than 80,000 Amharas are scattered in the forest without shelter or humanitarian aid," according to DW Amharic. The statement also said thousands had been killed, the broadcaster reported. Mereja could not verify the figures.
The alliance accused the government of intensifying what it called an "unceasing war against the Ethiopian people" and of carrying out "massacres, systematic displacement and destruction against innocent citizens," DW Amharic said. It said government structures in Wollega and Arsi in particular had been used to attack civilians, and it linked recent violence in Moyale and Gambella to state structures as well. "We will continue our all round struggle so that lasting peace prevails in the country," the statement said, in Mereja's translation of DW Amharic's account.
The federal government has not responded directly to the statement, DW Amharic said. The Oromia regional government, however, has linked the recent mass killing in Arsi, in which more than 60 people were killed, to a force it calls "Tsimdo," DW Amharic reported.
The statement came days after the chief of staff of the armed forces, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, said the army had defeated the alliance's forces, DW Amharic noted. Fighting has continued in the Amhara region, where DW Amharic reported heavy clashes between the army and Fano around Sanka in South Wollo since last Saturday, and where residents of a camp for displaced Amharas near Haik told Addis Standard that a drone strike on Thursday killed 16 people and wounded 22.
On X, reactions split along familiar lines. Fasil Abebe (@FasilAb19035844) noted on Thursday that Ethiopian officials blame the Oromo Liberation Army and the new alliance for recent attacks.
The account Amhara War Updates (@AmharaWarUpdate) posted on Friday that more than 80 displaced Amhara civilians, mostly women, children and elderly people, were killed on October 28 by Oromia's Gadaa Commando forces in Sibu Sire district of East Wollega as they fled fighting in neighboring Gida Ayana district. Mereja could not independently confirm that account, and the Oromia regional government had not commented on it.
Mereja asked the Government Communication Service on Thursday to respond to the alliance's accusations and to say how many people have been displaced in East Wollega since August. It had not responded by the time of publication.
The alliance said it would keep fighting "so that lasting peace prevails," DW Amharic reported.